Great start to married life. New wife in hospital.

Rikki

The book I was bought for Christmas was Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. Very interesting story of his life.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shantaram-Gr...ords=shantaram


You may be right about this book being more you than your wife. It's quite dark in places.

My OH is waiting for me to finish so he can start. I beginning to wonder did he buy me a gift for him?????

tiger_eyes

Fantasy novels? You've come to the right place!

Some great recommendations upthread - I'd second Robin Hobb in particular. If she's been enjoying the George RR Martin books, allow me to recommend some similar titles. I'm a big fan of Paul Kearney's epic fantasy - if you imagine George RR Martin with all the filler taken out, leaving a compact, tightly written, fast-paced series, you've got Paul Kearney. If she really likes all the filler, suggest Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, which starts out good and doesn't start to go downhill for at least a few books, so that buys you some time. Another Martin-alike is Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars series, which is heavily based on an alternate Europe with magic and I remember really liking it. Then you've got Guy Gavriel Kay, who writes amazing, lyrical, poetic fantasy - most people like Tigana best, but I think it's a toss-up between The Lions of Al-Rassan and A Song for Arbonne. I'm also a huge fan of Scott Lynch and Joe Abercrombie, two awesome epic fantasy writers, so let me recommend Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora and Abercrombie's The Blade Itself.

This is only scraping the surface, so I can recommend more if needed...

Tropez

Rikki wrote: »

I was thinking to myself if | was in hospital what I would like to have to hand.

My own clothes. Comb or brush, tissues, lip-salve, plus my usual toiletries. Music player to listen to, magazines or paper to read so I don't have to tax my brain and are easy to pick up and dip into. Water and cordial to make to hospital water taste palatable.

Grapes I love grapes.

I shall try and take as much of those types of things as I can. I can't find her Walkman MP3 player though which has all her favourite songs on it. I have no idea where has hidden it.

mumps wrote: »

Oh I feel for her. I have had two accidents which put together had similar results so I know she must be feeling pretty awful.

I found the broken arm so frastrating, I am very independent and needed help but didn't welcome it, well I did at first but as the weeks went by I found it hard. Poor husband couldn't win so you might need to tread carefully unless she is a saint

When you go back to work you might need to think about how she will manage for food. I was amazed at how fast a slice of toast could travel round the work top when I tried to butter it one handed.

I missed being able to relax in the bath because of trying to keep the cast dry but I found out later that you can buy covers that keep them dry, I used to wrap mine up in a bin bag but had to be careful not to lie down to far as the water would get in.

The questions about how she looks are a bit of a minefield as I would ask how I looked, bloody awful, and be told I looked fine and sometimes it would annoy me because I knew I didn't but I would probably have been equally unhappy to be told how I really looked. Even having been there I can't suggest anything other than play it by ear, if she feels patronised with being told she looks fine then maybe a positive "well the bruising is still there but it is fading and I bet it will be perfect in a week." Fingers crossed for her.

Books are so personal but I am going through a John Grisham phase, I get quite involved so might be good for distraction.

I think she needs a bit of TLC and you sound like the man for the job. Good luck and it does pass, I can laugh about it now especially the sympathetic looks I got in the supermarket and the daggers DH got from people who obviously thought I was a battered wife (that was when I hit my head and was badly bruised in the face)

I do most of my work from home anyway so I will be around for the most part. I usually have a weekly meeting to attend out of the house but we don't have any scheduled for two weeks and I'm pretty sure I can get out of some of the other ones. I will have to leave the house to collect whatever it is she needs from work. Fortunately, her assistant is already on the ball as far as things that need to be done go.

I figure that on days when I do need to leave the house I can prepare a pasta salad or something similar for her that she can eat with just a fork. We have a small refrigerator (one of those camping style things) that I can keep such meals in so she wouldn't have to try and wobble around with a bowl of food on crutches - I've tried that myself, it was a disaster.

I'm fully expecting to get walloped with a crutch at some point The split in her head is quite nasty and I know she will be panicking that it'll leave an obvious scar so I know there's going to be quite a few questions about that. I won't tell her this, obviously, because it will sound patronising but even if it did scar it's not a big deal but she's not going to see it that way.

Tropez

Rikki wrote: »

The book I was bought for Christmas was Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. Very interesting story of his life.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shantaram-Gr...ords=shantaram


You may be right about this book being more you than your wife. It's quite dark in places.

My OH is waiting for me to finish so he can start. I beginning to wonder did he buy me a gift for him?????

He may well have done!

She doesn't mind dark themes though so we shall see.

tiger_eyes wrote: »

Fantasy novels? You've come to the right place!

Some great recommendations upthread - I'd second Robin Hobb in particular. If she's been enjoying the George RR Martin books, allow me to recommend some similar titles. I'm a big fan of Paul Kearney's epic fantasy - if you imagine George RR Martin with all the filler taken out, leaving a compact, tightly written, fast-paced series, you've got Paul Kearney. If she really likes all the filler, suggest Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, which starts out good and doesn't start to go downhill for at least a few books, so that buys you some time. Another Martin-alike is Kate Elliott's Crown of Stars series, which is heavily based on an alternate Europe with magic and I remember really liking it. Then you've got Guy Gavriel Kay, who writes amazing, lyrical, poetic fantasy - most people like Tigana best, but I think it's a toss-up between The Lions of Al-Rassan and A Song for Arbonne. I'm also a huge fan of Scott Lynch and Joe Abercrombie, two awesome epic fantasy writers, so let me recommend Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora and Abercrombie's The Blade Itself.

This is only scraping the surface, so I can recommend more if needed...

That's quite the list to be going on with! Whoever reckoned that literature was dying clearly never spoke to people on this forum! :rotfl:

More for the list, thank you!

pinkteapot

Audio books might be a good idea, (1) in case her one arm gets tired and (2) to help block out hospital noise around her.

Most libraries have audio books on CD that you can borrow (my mum wanted a personal CD player for Christmas and I found one in Asda for £12.99), and our library also does audio books for download and use on an MP3 player...

If you can borrow or find a cheap portable DVD player, you could take that in with headphones and a good box-set of DVDs. Again, just in case holding up a book with one arm gets tiring after a while. Also probably cheaper than paying through the nose for the hospital TV subscription!

lostinrates

How wordy does she like her fantasy? And how 'fantastical'?

I read deathless (Catherine m. Valente) and fell in love with the very lyrical writing style. For those using the thread for reading recommendations for themselves/others please note Catherine m valence also wrote the YA / children's books 'the girl who circumnavigated fairyland in a ship of her own making' but her adult books have very adult themes despite sometimes, like this one, being based on fairy tale or folklore....

Tenyearstogo

Girlfriend in a coma by Douglas copeland
Lullaby by chuck Palaniuk
Night Circus by Erin morgenstern.

Agree with the Murakami suggestions.

trolleyrun

Bless Mrs Tropez, the injuries sound very painful and I'm wishing her a speedy recovery.

My favourite book of all time is "The 100 year old man who climbed out of a window and disappeared" by Jonas Jonasson. It's got pretty much everything in it; mystery, crime, travel, a tiny bit of romance and it's funny as well - and a big one for me: it's believeable

I'm currently enjoying "Red Bones" by Ann Cleeves, it's part 3 of 4 of the Shetland series. Crime novels. Well written and descriptive

When I spent some weeks on crutches one of the most frustrating things was to not be able to get out anywhere. I was going stir crazy! A friend of mine took me to the supermarket where I borrowed a mobility scooter and that was the height of excitement for me :rotfl: Once your wife has had some time to rest and is getting better you might need to think of somewhere to take her just to get a change of scenery, even just going for a coffee will help.

Once she's at home, maybe you could pamper her where it doesn't hurt, such as painting her nails? If nothing else, it'll be funny

If she likes puzzles such as soduku, you can get her a puzzle book (unless she's broken her writing arm). Or you can download lots of free games on her tablet. "Hay Day" is one that keeps me amused and is totally free (you can spend real money on it, but I never have - it's not necessary).

Good luck!

Mojisola

Try The Dresden Files - Harry Dresden, wizard and private investigator.

Book 1 - Storm Front.

Rachylou1981

Jodi Picoult is a good author, her books often have twists in and most are centred round some sort of court case. I find most of them totally gripping and un-put-down-able.

She wrote My Sister's Keeper which was made into a weepie with Cameron Diaz recently but that wasn't one of my faves.

I have read all bar one, which I will be purchasing for my upcoming holiday.

All of these will be available on Kindle